working from home « Tags « Jean Oram (.com)

The Problem With Working From Home: Issue 4

Posted on February 21st, 2009 jean No comments

Tech support.

Yeahhhhhh. This means YOU are the one responsible for making sure things are backed up. That your security software is up-to-date and if your email program suddenly starts marking one email IP address as SPAM, it means YOU get to be the one sitting on hold to talk to your email/Internet provider. It means you have to do the updates for your software. It means you have to install everything. It means if something breaks, you go to the store and buy a replacement.

In essence, you have to be freaking Jack of All Trades to work at home somewhat successfully. Either that or you have to have enough money to pay others to be the ‘brains’.

Really, it isn’t that bad, but it does take time out of one’s day. And even though I spent around an hour trying to resolve an email issue last night–you know the kind where you struggle with it until bedtime, eventually say ‘whatever’ and when you get up in the morning, it has fixed itself. Yeah, that kind–anyway, even though I did that, I still love working at home and am more than happy to figure out tech issues as they arise. (Okay, maybe not quite ‘more than happy’.)

What are you work from home issues?
life tech support at home, working from home
The Problem of Working From Home: Issue 3

Posted on February 19th, 2009 jean No comments

The third issue I have with doing the job of my dreams (and involves working from home, which is in short: awesome) has to do with God.

No, not God Himself (he’s welcome to stop by anytime), but his cronies. The door-to-door salespeople that arrive on his behalf. Yeah, them. I am ALWAYS home when they come by to sell me ‘the word’. At first it was amusing because I got to ask all these questions I’ve always been curious about. Like do they pay to go on their missions? Yes. (It is quite expensive.) Although the church helps them out. Yes, they get use of a car. (Which I might add is pretty nice and always meticulously clean.) They only stay in one place for about 6 months or so before they are shipped off to another place/country. It was really quite interesting. But now my questions have been answered and every 4-6 months a new crew comes to the door to see if I want to have more conversations. Which is fine. They are nice and actually, ever since I asked if they could vacuum in reply to “is there anything else we can do for you today?”, they have been making themselves a tad more scarce. Sad really. I was only joking.

It is the two old ladies who cram flyers through my door that you really need to watch out for. They act all sweet and nice and try to lure me to their church with the promise of cookies. They stand too close and force flyers into your hand. They prey on politeness. They ask you questions that you can’t answer without sounding religious–thus creating an opening for you to be forced to attend their church. I swear they get points for everyone they manage to haul in. Their motivation is alarming and it’s almost creepy how manipulative they are. You have to be so firm it borders on rude. And they are just two innocent looking little old ladies. Trust me, they aren’t. I even know their car. My daughter can’t figure out why I crouch on the floor and peek through the blinds to see if it is them or just UPS when someone hits the doorbell in the afternoon.

It’s to the point where I try and screen my door calls, but so far, it doesn’t work very well. The other day, I ignored the door. Not a good call on my part. It was the power company to warn me that they were going to turn off the power to change our meter. And yes, I was using electronics. They don’t like it when they suddenly lose power.

Still, it is better than the sales calls I used to get at work in the library. It was never the good companies calling to offer me up to 60% off their titles.
life God sales calls, working from home
The Problem of Working From Home: Issue 1

Posted on February 14th, 2009 jean 1 comment

Many people work from home, myself included. Honestly, it is pretty great. You can adjust your schedule to fit your needs and there is no commute. All you have to do is roll out of bed and bang, you are at work, listening to music as loud as you please, eating breakfast over your keyboard.

However, working from home is not without its flaws. For example the biggest issue I have is this:

Issue 1 With Working From Home: There is NO janitor.

Yes, that’s right. Those who work ‘on site’ may have to commute to their office, but at the end of their work day an invisible cleanup gnome arrives and empties their garbage, vacuums all their snack crumbs from under their chair and wipes the dried cup rings from every workspace surface. The bathrooms are miraculously restocked with TP that you did not have to trek out to buy. You didn’t even have to strain your brain figuring out which is the best price and how on earth you are out, yet again. Heck, you don’t have to even restock the TP in the dispenser because there are these amazing never-ending rolls that are always at the ready for your wiping needs. There is even a backup roll, always at the ready. The water splashes on the mirror above the sink miraculously vanish as if the mirror is enchanted with some sort of splash expiry system. There is even a nice big jug of nicely cooled water always in the dispenser thingy just waiting for you to get thirsty.

Ah, I tell you. A janitor sure would be nice.
life issues with working from home, working from home

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Welcome to my Website and Blog

I am an aspiring fiction writer (children's, women's and commercial) and a represented nonfiction writer. I am also a member, critiquer and site moderator over on AgentQueryConnect.com. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to jump in the conversation and leave your thoughts in the comment section.

Enjoy!